AI shoots player drones far more than player shoots AI drone

[thereaverofdarkness]

After many playthroughs of the game, I have repeatedly had my drones shot down by enemy ship fire or asteroids. This is so common as to actually be a rather significant drain on drone parts and can make playing an Engi ship particularly difficult if you don't wean yourself off of a drone reliance early in the game. Conversely, player shots almost never shoot down an AI-controlled drone. Even knowing how to do it (make the shot intersect with the drone), I find it is an extremely difficult stunt to pull off, and often I watch my shots pass right through an enemy drone and not hit it.

In a similar yet different bug, AI defense drones are far more adept at shooting down player missiles than player defense drones are at shooting down AI missiles. I have done a number of trials on this, and have seen the AI defense drone Mk I to succeed in shooting down a lone missile pretty much 100% of the time, or at least I always run out of missiles before one manages to get through. But the player defense drone Mk I fails to shoot down a single incoming missile around 10% of the time, and perhaps another 5% of the time gets hit by the missile.

This trend is seen even more strongly with hacking drones:
The AI defense drone succeeds in shooting down the player hacking drone around 85% of the time, while the player defense drone has below a 50% success rate against AI hacking drones or boarding drones.

This seems to be dependent on how much travel time the missile or drone has between entering the screen and hitting the ship, and player ships are larger for the most part. But I see these imbalances as well with the Rebel Flagship, so ship size alone can't be all there is to it. I have noticed for instance that a hacking drone sent to navigation on the Kestrel cruiser will virtually never get shot down, while any hacking drone sent towards the middle of the ship will pretty much never fail to be shot down unless the drone is distracted (Defense Mk II).

[stylesrj]

This isn't actually a bug. Sometimes you hit a drone, other times the drone hits you.

In fact, when I fire something like a dual laser sometimes, the first shot never fails to hit an enemy anti-drone drone and thus ruin my strategy. Or it hits a drone that wasn't bothering me or wouldn't be a bother.

I once launched a hacking drone right as an ion blast was going to impact with my shields. Instead, it sent my drone haywire and blew it up.

This seems to be dependent on how much travel time the missile or drone has between entering the screen and hitting the ship, and player ships are larger for the most part. But I see these imbalances as well with the Rebel Flagship, so ship size alone can't be all there is to it. I have noticed for instance that a hacking drone sent to navigation on the Kestrel cruiser will virtually never get shot down, while any hacking drone sent towards the middle of the ship will pretty much never fail to be shot down unless the drone is distracted (Defense Mk II).

Some ships are just not good at defending themselves from drones or hacking modules. The Mantis B can never defend its Drone Control from being hacked. Without fail, if there a Hacking Drone going for Drone Control, it'll go for Drone Control. No saving throw.

I also found that if you pause the game right before Phase 2 of the Flagship battle starts and launch a Hacking Drone at Drones, there's a good chance you'll get it.

[thereaverofdarkness]

This isn't actually a bug. Sometimes you hit a drone, other times the drone hits you.

In fact, when I fire something like a dual laser sometimes, the first shot never fails to hit an enemy anti-drone drone and thus ruin my strategy. Or it hits a drone that wasn't bothering me or wouldn't be a bother.

I once launched a hacking drone right as an ion blast was going to impact with my shields. Instead, it sent my drone haywire and blew it up.

I am aware this can happen. My point is that how often it happens is dramatically unbalanced in favor of the AI.

[stylesrj]

I am aware this can happen. My point is that how often it happens is dramatically unbalanced in favor of the AI.

Only because you perceive it that way.
It's why I hate missile weapons. They never seem to work for me, but they work for the AI when you really don't want them to. Plus every ship seems to have one and they're in the very first weapons slot meaning you have to smash up Weapons 100% to stop their Leto Missile.

Drones are the same thing. I just laugh when I deploy a Defence Drone only for it to block the incoming asteroid or missile with its face.

[thereaverofdarkness]

Only because you perceive it that way.

No, I've ran plenty of tests and seen this to be a continuing and testable trend.

It's why I hate missile weapons. They never seem to work for me, but they work for the AI when you really don't want them to. Plus every ship seems to have one and they're in the very first weapons slot meaning you have to smash up Weapons 100% to stop their Leto Missile.

Drones are the same thing. I just laugh when I deploy a Defence Drone only for it to block the incoming asteroid or missile with its face.

Yeah I know!

Another one I have noticed is with the Defense Mk 2. When I use it, it almost never blocks the enemy ship's missile if that missile comes in at the same time as any laser shots. Any other shot can get shot down but the missiles will be ignored pretty much every time if anything else is in flight. But when I'm trying to get a missile past the enemy's Defense Mk II, I can purposely time my missile to fly in immediately after burst laser bolts have started flying in and a lot of times the missile still gets shot down.